RI Public Radio Rearranges

TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2012...IT'S COMING!

A decade ago, it was just a goofy idea: "Hey, you should put some of those tower pictures into a calendar!"

But when Tower Site Calendar 2002 appeared, it was a hit - and ten years later, the fun still hasn't stopped.

And now it's that moment at least some of you have been waiting for: the grand unveiling of our latest edition, Tower Site Calendar 2012, seen for the very first time right here!

As befits a tenth-anniversary edition, this one's special: in addition to all the great tower photos and historic dates you've come to expect from our calendars, the new 2012 edition is our first-ever themed calendar, paying special homage to the many stations that began broadcasting during radio's first big boom year of 1922.

The 2012 edition brings something else that's new to the Tower Site Calendar: the option of a spiral-bound edition that will hang flatter on your wall.

We're putting the finishing touches on availability and pricing, and starting in just a day or two, we'll have the new calendar ready for pre-ordering at the Fybush.com store.

(We're also on the verge of an exciting new announcement about some big changes to the fybush.com site itself...so stay tuned!)

And in the meantime, we still want to clear out our remaining stock of the 2011 calendars so we can make room for the new 2012 calendar, already in production. Only a small handful of 2011 calendars remain in stock, and you can get what's left of the very limited remaining supply for just $8 postpaid. (That's a $10 discount from the original list price of $18!)

Tower Site Calendar 2011 features more than a dozen great images of radio and TV broadcast facilities all over the country (and even beyond - this year's edition takes us to Mexico!)

Thrill to a night shot of KFI's new tower! Check out the WAEB Allentown array just after it lost a tower - or enjoy the history at venerable sites like those of KID in Idaho Falls, WCAP in Lowell, KTKT in Tucson and Rochester's Pinnacle Hill.

But wait - there's more! We also have a small supply of the new FM Atlas, 21st edition back in stock, as well as a limited supply of Tower Site Calendar 2010 - plus signed calendars, back isues and much more in the fybush.com store!

Order now at the fybush.com Store!

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Yup, we've been doing this a long time now, and so we're digging back into the vaults for a look at what NERW was covering one, five, ten and - where available - fifteen years ago this week, or thereabouts.

Note that the column appeared on an erratic schedule in its earliest years as "New England Radio Watch," and didn't go to a regular weekly schedule until 1997.

One Year Ago: August 16, 2010 -

• It's been a very slow week in NERW-land, so in lieu of a full-sized column, we offer just a few headlines from around the region:
• Elvis Duran, who began his broadcast career in Syracuse, NEW YORK at WJPZ (89.1), the Syracuse University station, is returning to the market beginning today - but only in syndicated form.
• WWHT (Hot 107.9), Clear Channel's top-40 station, is displacing its own "Marty and Shannon" local morning show to pick up Duran's New York-based "Morning Zoo." The morning staff stays with the station on new shifts: Marty "the One-Man Party" returns to the afternoon shift, while Shannon Wells will be doing middays and "Deaf Geoff" will do weekends and fill-ins. Former afternoon jock "Jus' Mic" will move over to sister station WPHR (106.9), reports CNYRadio.com.
• Some other morning show shifts around the state: in New York City, D.L. Hughley departed the morning show at WRKS (Kiss 98.7) last week, saying on Monday that it was his last day with the station. No replacement has been named yet for the comedian; WRKS says he's simply away doing a movie, but it doesn't appear he's coming back. Also missing in action is Lilly Hisenaj, who's gone from the website for the Brother Wease morning show at Rochester's WFXF (95.1 the Fox) after under two years at the station.
• In Buffalo, "Swing 1270" is the new slogan for the standards format Citadel has installed at WHLD (1270 Niagara Falls).
• Out on Long Island's East End, it will be down to the wire for Peconic Public Broadcasting as it heads toward its August 31 deadline to make a $500,000 payment to Long Island University for the license of WLIU (88.3 Southampton). Peconic is holding a capital drive to put together the money for the station, and the local papers are reporting that it's turning to Hamptons bigwigs such as Alec Baldwin in an effort to step up its fundraising.
• In MASSACHUSETTS, public station WUMB-FM (91.9 Boston) has more than just call letters for its new license northwest of Boston in Stow: the new WUMG (91.7) signed on last Tuesday, and your editor heard its first afternoon of broadcasts without even realizing it!
• The new WUMG signal will operate only part-time when school resumes this fall at share-time partner WAVM (91.7 Maynard). The two stations share a common transmitter site, and the signal is a big improvement over WAVM's old low-power signal, covering much of the area between routes 128 and 495 north of the Mass Pike.

Five Years Ago: August 14, 2006 -

• Smooth jazz fans in southeast PENNSYLVANIA are without a radio station this week, and plenty of other listeners in and around Philadelphia may soon be punching buttons, listening for other changes on the city's dial.
• The big, immediate news was the long-rumored end to smooth jazz at Clear Channel's WJJZ (106.1 Philadelphia), which ended that format last Thursday (August 10) at noon, signing off with a montage of its artists and with Hall and Oates' "She's Gone" before relaunching with rhythmic AC as "Philly's 106.1," the new home (effective this morning) of the syndicated Whoopi Goldberg morning show. At the same time, the soft AC "Sunny" format on sister station WSNI (104.5 Philadelphia) came to its own end, signing off with Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" - and launching into a slightly-delayed simulcast of WJJZ.
• That, however, is only a temporary move - a new format for 104.5 is expected to arrive as soon as today, and we'll update the column accordingly when it launches.
• Why pull the plug on smooth jazz, a format that had attracted a stable and loyal, if not enormous, audience for Clear Channel in Philadelphia? There's speculation that the format was drawing too many listeners away from the company's powerhouses in the market, urban AC WDAS-FM (105.3) and urban WUSL (98.9). (WUSL, by the way, has a new morning man - Sam Sylk, who started last week, returning to the station from a stint at WGCI in Chicago.) With Clear Channel looking to make some high-profile rollouts of its new Whoopi morning show, the WJJZ flip became all but inevitable. And in a market that's always been friendly to rhythmic formats, the rumor mill was already working overtime about the new "Movin'" rhythmic AC format that debuted earlier this summer at Sandusky Radio's KQMV in Seattle - a format that just happens to target the same female audience that Whoopi's show does.
• Clear Channel's not the only format-flip player in the market right now, either. There's still the open question of what becomes of Greater Media's new 97.5 signal when it moves in to the market soon. There's ongoing speculation about Greater's long-term committment to adult hits on its WBEN-FM (95.7). There's the Radio One cluster, where Daisy Davis just arrived this week as the new operations manager, and where WPHI (100.3 Media) hasn't been performing up to its potential. (Could smooth jazz land on one of Radio One's signals?)
• The other big Philadelphia news last week was the death, on his 81st birthday, of Mike Douglas, who moved from his first career as a big-band singer to new fame as a TV talk-show host in the sixties. Douglas' first show was on Westinghouse's KYW-TV in Cleveland - but when Westinghouse reversed its 1956 station swap with NBC in 1965, the KYW-TV calls and most of its staff moved from Cleveland to channel 3 in Philadelphia. The Mike Douglas Show became one of the era's most successful syndicated offerings, and it continued to emanate from Philadelphia until 1978, when Douglas moved the show to Los Angeles.
• In Scranton, they're mourning Terry McNulty, the longtime morning host on WARM (590) who died Friday (Aug. 11) at 70. McNulty worked briefly at WSCR (1320 Scranton) in the fifties, then came to WARM and stayed, making features like "Pass the Pineapple" fixtures on local radio.
• McNulty remained at WARM until 1998, when he was let go by Citadel. An age-discrimination lawsuit followed, which was settled in 2004. That's also when McNulty returned to the airwaves, spending a year doing mornings on WNAK (730 Nanticoke) before retiring in 2005.
• The next piece of the WCRB saga came together late last week, when Charles River Broadcasting confirmed that it's selling its RHODE ISLAND stations - classical WCRI (95.9 Block Island) and CNN Headline News WCNX (1180 Hope Valley) - to Christopher Jones, son of WCRB founder Ted Jones. No format changes are expected at either station, and here's the interesting part: in the press release, Jones said he hoped to also acquire Charles River's remaning MASSACHUSETTS stations, Cape Cod's classical WFCC (107.5 Chatham) and rock WKPE (104.7 Orleans), as well as the World Classical Network service that's being run out of WCRB.
• There's plenty of AM-to-FM action in southern ONTARIO this week - and a rare AM-to-AM move, too. In Oshawa, Durham Radio's CKDO (1350) pulled the plug on that AM frequency just after the 10 AM news on Sunday, returning to the air later that night on its new frequency of 1580, where it boosts power from 10 kW days/5 kW nights to 10 kW fulltime. CKDO is also heard on an FM relay at 107.7 in Oshawa, and that's where most of the listeners are these days, we suspect.
• To the east, CHUC (1450 Cobourg) signed on its new FM facility at 1 PM last Friday. The new CHUC-FM (107.9) is known on-air as "107.9 the Breeze" (no connection, we're pretty sure, to the ill-fated fast ferry that briefly connected Toronto to Rochester), and after a 90-day simulcast period, the AM signal on 1450 will go dark for good. There's a connection here to the CKDO move - CHUC was granted a move from 1450 to 1580 a few years ago, but then abandoned that plan in favor of the move to FM, opening the 1580 frequency for use in Oshawa.
• To the west, CKOT (1510 Tillsonburg) will remain on the air as Canada's only daytimer, but it will soon have a 24/7 FM signal as well. The CRTC last week granted CKOT a license to use 107.3 (with 4.5 kW average ERP and a directional antenna) as a 24-hour signal for its AM country programming. CKOT also has separate soft AC programming on the long-established CKOT-FM (101.3 Tillsonburg).

10 Years Ago: August 20, 2001 -

• We'll begin our New England report up in MAINE, where there's been plenty of news in our absence. Over at Portland's Saga cluster, Ken McGrail resigned from his PD/afternoon gig at oldies WYNZ (100.9 Westbrook); he's headed for PD/morning drive down the coast at WQEZ (104.7 Kennebunkport). Down the hall, Chris Duggan gives up his PD job at country WPOR (101.9), though he'll stay on the air middays until a replacement is named. Saga's WZAN (970) shuffled its programming lineup, replacing G. Gordon Liddy with Phil Hendrie from 10 AM till noon, and adding Jim Rome in Ed Tyll's old noon to 3 PM slot. WZAN also adds Fox Sports on weekend overnights, and Patriots football (formerly on the WJAE/WJJB network) once the season starts. The "Big Jab," meanwhile, grabs the Portland Pirates AHL rights for the fall from WZAN. The stations have now joined WRED (95.9 Saco) at the WLOB facility on Warren Avenue, leaving the old WJAE/WJBQ quarters a few blocks away on Warren vacant.
• Bangor's WWBX (97.1) officially entered the Clear Channel family this week, moving over from Gopher Hill Broadcasting on the same day Clear Channel sold WGUY (102.1 Dexter) to Mark Jorgenson's Concord group. (No coincidence there; Clear Channel had to spin something before it could acquire WWBX).
• A format change on the other side of the Connecticut River: in VERMONT, WZSH (107.1 Bellows Falls) and WSSH (95.3 White River Junction) move from "Lite FM" to hot AC "Star." Programming includes the syndicated Bob and Sheri in mornings, Westwood One hot AC in middays, PD Art Steinberg in the afternoons and Delilah at night.
• MASSACHUSETTS finally has Opie and Anthony to kick around again. Three years after being booted from WAAF (107.3 Worcester) for that moronic "Mayor Menino is Dead" April Fools' stunt, Infinity finally brought the pair back to Beantown, inserting them (against some internal pressure, we hear) into the WBCN (104.1) lineup. Since their start on 'BCN last week, former afternooner Nik Carter has moved to middays, sending middayer Bill Abbate to evenings. We hear the duo spent their entire first show recounting the WAAF stunt, which must have been absolutely riveting to listeners of their other affiliates around the country...
• Not much happening in NEW JERSEY, until you get to Cape May. That's where WSAX (102.3) dumped its automated smooth jazz last week and began simulcasting the satellite standards from WMID (1340 Atlantic City).

15 Years Ago: New England Radio Watch, August 19, 1996

• Two Cape Cod radio stations spent some time off the air this weekend. WWKJ (101.1 Mashpee MA; ex-WFAL, WUNZ) and WJCO (93.5 Harwich Port; ex-WFXR, WUNX) were recently bought by car dealer Ernie Boch, and just last week changed from a modern rock simulcast to classic rock (WWKJ) and soft AC (WJCO). And then, over the weekend, someone cut the cables leading out to the stations' satellite dishes. Wire- service reports claim the damage was sufficiently severe to take both stations off the air, and to keep WJCO off the air through Monday. Boch is offering a $10,000 reward for information about the crime.
• NERW is considering buying earplugs to block out the roar of rumors concerning the impending demise of one of Greater Media's two Boston country FMs. The best-sourced rumor so far has Greater Media going to a simulcast on WBCS (96.9) and WKLB (105.7) on or about Monday, August 26...and then launching some new format on one of the stations a week or so later.
• American Radio Systems has been making big headlines by buying stations, but the Boston-based company also sells a station from time to time. The latest ARS sale involves WNEZ (910), until recently their sole AM property in the Hartford CT market. WNEZ has been drawing minimal ratings with a CNN Headline News/sports talk format, but it's been a very minor player in the ARS Connecticut stable, which also includes or is about to include WTIC (1080 Hartford; full-service), WZMX (93.7 Hartford; 70s), WTIC-FM (96.5 Hartford;hot AC), and WRCH (100.5 New Britain; AC). Now ARS is selling WNEZ to Mega Broadcasting for $750,000. Mega plans to take the station Spanish, just as it's doing with its other East Coast acquisition, WURD (900) Philadelphia. WNEZ will join WPRX 1120 Bristol, WRYM 840 New Britain, WLAT 1230 Manchester, and WRDM 1550 Bloomfield in broadcasting all or part of the day in Spanish. WNEZ's signal is adequate in most of the area by day, but at night the New Britain-licensed 5 kW station is hampered by a directional pattern that aims southeast from its Farmington transmitter site, away from Hartford. No word on whether Mega is buying the Birdseye Road transmitter site as well (the building used to house the station's studios back when it was WRCQ).